The event is the last out of five Mutual Learning Events series, each with over thirty foresight practitioners and/or research and innovation policy-makers experts from across the European Union (EU). The format of these workshops has been designed to allow for mutual exchange and learning among participants: a few keynotes as well as interactive sessions where all participants can share their experience, ideas and questions.

The series of events is organised as part of the project Eye of Europe, a Coordination and Support Action funded by the Horizon Europe Programme, aimed at enhancing the integration of foresight practices into science, technology, and innovation (STI) policymaking across the EU. The Technology Centre Prague (TC Prague, Czechia) together with the National Agency for Research and Development of Republic of Moldova as the local organiser oversee organising this event. Technology Centre Prague, which is responsible for all the MLEs and their content, is a key Czech national think tank and academia-based NGO which has a long and rich experience in supporting knowledge-based policymaking as well as in foresight processes and expert-based forward-looking exercises and trainings. National Agency for Research and Development (NARD) is the Moldovan government authority responsible for implementing the national programme on research and innovation, promoting excellence, and supporting collaborative projects through competitive funding and partnership initiatives.

The topic of Foresight culture in Europe: How to use foresight for (STI) knowledge-based policy making?
shall bring discussions on importance of collaboration among researchers, policymakers, and industry experts in
foresight activities and explore ways to break down silos and promote knowledge exchange across disciplines in
Moldova as well as in the rest of Europe or even globally.

The fourth Mutual Learning Event of the 𝐄𝐲𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 project took place in beautiful Budapest, focusing on "𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠."

The event featured presentations on European and national foresight exercises, highlighting diverse practices in shaping long-term visions and setting strategic priorities. These insights fueled lively discussions during two interactive sessions.

Over twenty participants from diverse stakeholder groups joined the event held in Budapest, Hungary: Eye of Europe partner organizations, representatives from the European Commission, R&I funding agencies, representatives of governmental bodies. 

Presentations

• Opening and Introduction to the Eye of Europe project | Radu Gheorghiu, coordinator (UEFISCDI, Romania)
• Introduction to Forward-looking Activities and Policy Making | Attila Havas (CERS, Hungary)
• Introduction of the MLE4 context, objectives and agenda | Lenka Hebáková (TC Prague, Czechia)
• Foresight for European R&I Priorities | Nicola Francesco Dotti, EC’s DG for Research and Innovation: Common R&I Strategy & Foresight Service
• Building anticipatory governance as a core element of policymaking across OECD countries | Julia
  Staudt
• Malta: Foresight and Visioning in the R&I policy cycle | Jennifer Cassingena Harper, Insight Foresight
  Institute
• UK: Discussing strategies for positioning a country or region as a leader in specific R&I domains | Luke Georghiou, University of Manchester
• Romania: Digital Transformation in the Romanian Public Administration: Scenarios and Associated
  Digital Roles for Civil Servants | Bianca Dragomir, Institutul de Prospectiva
• Hungary: The Priorities and the Methodology of the Programme Strategy | Péter Racskó, NRDI
  Office
  

This event is the fourth in a series of five MLEs planned in the project; the following event will be held in Chișinău, Moldova. All Eye of Europe MLEs are organized by Technology Centre Prague (TC), Eye of Europe partner and key Czech national think tank and academia based NGO with a rich experience with knowledge-based policy making support and (participatory as well as expert based) foresight activities.

The fourth Mutual Learning Event addressed topic of long-term visioning and priority-setting. The two-day foresight event gathered experts, policymakers and foresight practitioners to discuss among others participatory foresight practices, and the integration of foresight into policymaking. Presentations emphasized the importance of preparedness, stakeholder engagement, and the need for quality standards in foresight methodologies. Discussions highlighted challenges in mainstreaming foresight, including institutional commitment, regional disparities, and balancing expert input with participatory inclusiveness. Key takeaways included the need for clearer principles, stronger political support, and context-specific tools. Looking ahead, upcoming events in Romania, Moldova will serve to consolidate learnings and strengthen the foresight community’s role in shaping resilient, future-ready policies.

The third Mutual Learning Event (MLE) of project Eye of Europe took place online on January 21st, 2025. As a Coordination and Support Action, project Eye of Europe aims to enhance the integration of foresight practices into the Research and Innovation (R&I) policy-making across Europe and to nurture a vibrant, cohesive R&I foresight community that contributes significantly, as a collective intelligence, to shaping and guiding policy decisions.

Over forty participants from diverse stakeholder groups joined the event: Eye of Europe partner organizations, representatives from the European Commission, R&I funding agencies, representatives of governmental bodies. Expert presentations of two European and one national foresight exercises showcased diverse practices for integrating foresight results into the R&I policy cycle and formed the basis for vivid discussions in three interactive sessions.

Presentations:

• Project coordinator Radu Gheorghiu (UEFISCDI, Romania) introduced the Eye of Europe project as a social infrastructure supporting the strenghtening of the European foresight community. To this end, Eye of Europe hosts a series of activities: five mutual learning events, eleven pilot foresight activities and two conferences - highlighting the upcoming Futures4Europe conference to be held in Vienna on May 15-16, 2025. Moreover, the project enabled the upgrade of the platform futures4europe.eu to better serve its role as the online home of a vibrant and inclusive European foresight community. Multiple new improvements of the platform were shared in the closing section of the event.
• Moderator of the event Lenka Hebáková (TC Prague, Czech Republic) followed up with an introduction on the event´s aims and agenda.
• Nikos Kastrinos (former EC) shared about the Foresight on Demand project "Foresight towards the Second Strategic Plan of Horizon Europe”, providing insights into how foresight was employed and linked with the policy cycle in the period of HE strategies setting.
• “Megatrends 2050 in a Changing World and their Impact on Portugal” presented by Monica Isfan (PlanAPP, Portugal) showcased Portugal's experience with embedding foresight in the context of strategic planning.
• Klaus Kubeczko (AIT, Austria) and Jürgen Wengel (former EC) shared about the Foresight on Demand project “S&T&I 2050: Science, technology and innovation for ecosystem performance : accelerating sustainability transitions“ on mapping the relationship between emerging trends in science, technology and innovation and ecosystem performance in the context of the European Green Deal. Moreover, the presentation highlighted the project's engagement of a wide range of STI experts in a Dynamic Argumentative Delphi survey.

This event is the third in a series of five MLEs planned in the project; the following event will be held beginning April 2025 in Budapest. All Eye of Europe MLEs are organized by Technology Centre Prague (TC), Eye of Europe partner and key Czech national think tank and academia based NGO with a rich experience with knowledge-based policy making support and (participatory as well as expert based) foresight activities.

The national research project 4Tech (Development of selected technologies during and after COVID-19 crisis) under the financial support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, contract No. TL 040000390. The project 4Tech focusing on four technologies: digitalization and cloud, additive production, telemedicine and digital (distant) forms of education.
The main objective is to capture the impulses induced by the COVID-19 crisis with existing and potential impacts mainly on the rural development drivers.
The research has the following specific objectives:
1) To map extent and forms of the 4 technologies application in the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide with a particular emphasis on the Czech Republic
2) To analyse fulfilment of needs in the respective technical areas and to identify impacts on multi- actors´ collaboration, socio-technical system and society.
3) To explore societal changes of values, attitudes, expectations and concerns referring to the use of the selected technologies during the COVID-19 crisis.
4) To conduct foresight study on technology development in the respective areas with the horizon 2040.

The report provides a brief overview of the insights captured during the second Mutual Learning Event (MLE2) which was held online on September 26, 2024.

The concept of Future-Oriented Collective Intelligence (FOCI) offers a transformative approach to making sense of and addressing future challenges that are complex and interconnected. 

The topic was at the centre of the Futures4Europe Conference that took place on 15-16 May 2025 in Vienna, Austria, at the Skydome in Vienna’s thrilling 7th district.   

We are deeply grateful to all 140 participants from 32 countries who joined us for these two days of exploration, dialogue, and inspiration. To gain an overview of the diverse themes, methods, and perspectives presented, you may consult the book of abstracts.

We also invite you to revisit the highlights of the conference through our photo gallery and short wrap-up video. 

Feel free to share them with your networks! We look forward to meeting again in 2026.

The Conference is organised by AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, as part of the Eye of Europe project, which envisions a more cohesive and influential R&I foresight community that contributes significantly, as collective intelligence, to shaping and guiding policy decisions. The project has received funding from the EU’s Horizon Europe Research Programme under Grant Agreement n°101131738. 

#Futures4EuropeConference2025 #Foresight #CollectiveIntelligence

The first Mutual Learning Event (MLE) took place on May 23, 2024 in Bratislava, Slovakia as part of the Horizon Europe project Eye of Europe, which aims to contribute to the maturing of a vibrant Research and Innovation (R&I) foresight community in Europe and to support the integration of foresight practices into R&I policy-making.

Forty participants from partner organizations and external representatives of ministries, governmental bodies, R&I funding agencies and the European institutions gathered in the premises of the Government Office of the Slovak Republic.

This MLE, organized by Technology Centre Prague (TC), focused on the identification of emerging needs and approaches in the practice of foresight for research and innovation. To this end, the MLE in Bratislava was structured along the following phases:

• Eye of Europe’s vision and main building blocks, presented by project coordinator Radu Gheorghiu
• The context and role of this MLE, and a brief overview of other mutual learning events that took place since 2020, presented by Michal Pazour 
• Showcasing preliminary results of the Stocktaking of the organisation of R&I Foresight activities in the European Research Area (ERA), by Simone Weske. The presentation highlighted key benefits of the R&I foresight activities, constraints and bottlenecks, as perceived by the survey respondents.
• Four country studies - Slovakia, Finland, Austria and Sweden - have brought interesting insights and comparisons related to R&I foresight uptake and potential for improvement:
  Slovakia: Research and Innovation System and the potential for R&I Foresight |Michal Habrman, Government Office of the Slovak Republic
  Finland: Finnish national foresight ecosystem | Juha Kaskinen, FFRC University of Turku Finland
  Sweden: Leading from the Future in Sweden | Joakim Skog, Vinnova Sweden
  Austria: R&I foresight | Christian Naczinsky, Austrian Ministry of Education
• Discussions in four participant groups on emerging functions and approaches of R&I foresight. Overall, the group discussions touched on the dynamics of R&I foresight demand and supply and on the diversification of tools and methods for establishing dialogue with policy-making.
  
  This video created by the event host, Výskumná a inovačná autorita (VAIA), offers a glimpse into the spirit of both the MLE and the R&I foresight masterclass that preceded it. The detailed outputs of the MLE will be published in a dedicated report.
  
  
  ***
  Five MLEs are planned in the project, with the following one being held online in September 2024. All Eye of Europe MLEs are organized by Technology Centre Prague (TC), Eye of Europe partner and key Czech national think tank and academia based NGO with a rich experience with knowledge-based policy making support and (participatory as well as expert based) foresight activities.
  

The second Mutual Learning Event (MLE) took place online on September 26, 2024, as part of Eye of Europe, a Horizon Europe project  which aims to enhance the integration of foresight practices into Research and Innovation (R&I) policy-making across Europe and to nurture a vibrant, cohesive R&I foresight community that contributes significantly, as a collective intelligence, to shaping and guiding policy decisions.

The online MLE brought together fifty participants from diverse stakeholder groups: Eye of Europe partner organizations, the European Commission, R&I funding agencies, representatives of governmental bodies. The event, organized by Technology Centre Prague (TC), focused on the topic of policy oriented communication of foresight results. Group and plenary discussions in three interactive sessions were framed by expert presentations showcasing diverse practices in the application and communication of foresight.

Presentations:

• Michal Pazour (TC Prague, Czech Republic) introduced the Eye of Europe project and the context of this second Mutual Learning Event.
• Moderator of the event Lenka Hebáková (TC Prague, Czech Republic) followed up with an introduction to the event’s aims and agenda.
• Mikko Dufva (SITRA, Finland) – “Communicating foresight. From knowing it all to empowering change”. The presentation included three case studies: SITRA’s decade long experience with megatrends as a platform for dialogue, their work on weak signals as an invitation to broaden futures thinking in a “what if?” spirit and, finally, their efforts to empower others to define futures bottom-up, through small funding to diverse teams across Finland.
• “Communicating foresight in the European Commission” presented by Maia Knutti and Teodora Garbovan (EU Policy Lab, European Commission) brought insights into how, in the European Commission context, foresight is employed and linked with the policy cycle. Examples covered foresight content (e.g. Strategic Foresight Reports) and engagement tools (e.g. megatrends hub, scenario exploration system) that are serving different stakeholder groups across multiple channels.
• Bianca Dragomir (Institutul de Prospectiva, Romania) discussed a case study on embedding foresight into policy making in the context of developing the Strategy for Fishing and Aquaculture 2035 in Romania. Moreover, she shared about embedding foresight into both policy making and societal conversation, discussing two Foresight on Demand projects: Scenarios on “Transhumanist Revolutions” and foresight-meets-speculative-design project “Futures Garden”.
• Totti Könnölä (Insight Foresight Institute, Spain) shared about the Foresight on Demand project "European R&I foresight and public engagement for Horizon Europe" that advanced several objectives: generating foresight intelligence, i.e. through forward-looking policy briefs; monitoring of foresight activities and providing support for exploitation (Horizon Futures Watch); laying the building blocks for a European foresight community supported by an online platform. 
• Marie Ségur (Futuribles, France) presented a case study on “Future of social work in France to 2035-2050” and the methods employed throughout the process: using surveys to motivate engagement with futures thinking, scenario building that may inform strategic choices and guide towards a vision and, finally, communicating outcomes in a synthetic manner, that may contribute to a wider discussion around the topic.
• Eye of Europe project coordinator Radu Gheorghiu (UEFISCDI, Romania) shared previews of the upcoming upgrade of the futures4europe.eu platform, with its new look and extended features.
  
  This event is the second in a series of five MLEs planned in the project; the following event will be held on January 21st 2025 also in an online format. All Eye of Europe MLEs are organized by Technology Centre Prague (TC), Eye of Europe partner and key Czech national think tank and academia based NGO with a rich experience with knowledge-based policy making support and (participatory as well as expert based) foresight activities.

As a Coordination and Support Action, project “Eye of Europe” aims to enhance the integration of foresight practices into Research and Innovation (R&I) policy making across Europe. Ultimately, the project envisions a more cohesive and influential R&I foresight community that contributes significantly, as a collective intelligence, to shaping and guiding policy decisions.

To this end, Eye of Europe builds on existing initiatives and experiences to foster knowledge-sharing between foresight practitioners and policy makers, attract domain experts in foresight endeavours, and engage a broader audience in futures thinking. Nurturing futures4europe.eu as the online home for the community and running various face-to-face events with different stakeholders will underpin these ambitions.
Methodologically, the project relies on the following building blocks:

• futures4europe.eu as the online hub for the R&I foresight community in Europe: The platform accommodates the interests of various stakeholders such as foresight experts, beneficiaries, domain experts, and an active audience. It operates on multiple integration levels, from mapping organizations and experts to sharing foresight results and capabilities. Moreover, it acts as the communication gateway for ongoing foresight activities, events, educational and inspirational materials.
  
  
• Sharing of practices: This entails mapping institutions engaged in R&I foresight activities, promoting mutual learning through interactive formats, developing shared visions for the future of foresight in R&I policy within the European Research Area (ERA), fostering exchanges among the foresight in R&I policy community through conferences, encouraging dialogues between futurist/expert communities, academics and policy practitioners.
  Key figures: 5 mutual learning events (MLE): 2 online, 3 face-to-face events; 1 vision building event for the Future of R&I Foresight in ERA; 2 conferences
  
  
• Running foresight pilots: Conducting a series of pilot workshops and online consultations with diverse formats, methodologies, and participants. This involves identifying topics of common interest within the European Research Area (ERA), where foresight perspectives offer added value, designing and implementing tailored pilot foresight activities involving various stakeholders, harnessing lessons learnt and feeding them into the platform and other dissemination channels.
  Key figures: 11 Foresight pilot processes: 3 exclusively with citizens, 4 mainly with experts and researchers tackling specific R&I topics, 4 involving a bespoke group of participants. Out of the 11 events, 8 will be face-to-face events, and 3 pilots will take place online
  
  
• Boosting futures literacy: The project encourages meaningful engagement with diverse audiences, from foresight professionals, researchers, policy-makers to various futures sensitive profiles (e.g. entrepreneurs, journalists, artists) and the wider civil society. The project will provide guides, methodology toolboxes, and training modules for R&I foresight and futures literacy, incorporating written and multimedia content.
  Key figures: 5-10 short training sets for participants in foresight exercises; 1 training module for foresight beneficiaries; 1 foresight training for early career researchers, 1 Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on R&I foresight; 12 conversational podcasts; 6-8 Short videos and/or animated materials showcasing foresight processes and outcomes
  
  
• Fueling the public discourse around futures: Promoting the project and fostering the foresight community via the online platform futures4europe.eu and complementary channels such as social media and a dedicated newsletter. In addition to highlighting the project's own initiatives, Eye of Europe will also aim to promote foresight content developed in other projects, showcasing a diverse range of perspectives and insights within the foresight field. The quarterly newsletter will feature various content types like interviews, project updates, and foresight-related articles. Social media, particularly Futures4Europe's LinkedIn page, will be used to engage professional communities and wider audiences, with a focus on sharing project activities and fostering discussions.